I grew up in and around the youth setup for scarlets. I didn't make it pro and I've no complaints about it. The youth setup in Wales is totally broken. The "Regional Development Officers" are completely corrupt. The word "Favouritism" is an understatement. I'm seeing so many of the welsh players who were boys I either played with or played against and were nowhere near the best of my generation. Adam Beard, Ryan Elias, KIERAN HARDY, Dylan Phillips, Sam Castello... I could go on. The scouting is completely broken and I saw boys who had genuine talent be completely ignored in favour for players who had some form of backhand connection with the scouts. I know this sounds like a conspiracy, but I lived and breathed it. I foresaw the collapse of welsh rugby 10 years ago, when we were winning grand slams and doing well in world cups. I told all my english university mates that wales would be a shambles soon because I knew the players who were going through the academy system just weren't all that. Sorry to say, but welsh Rugby is dead and won't come back anytime soon. I'll even name drop RICHARD HARDY in here. A completely corrupt narcissist who picked his son Kieran over much better scrum halves and those better scrum halves didn't get a look in. The second string scrum half for the scarlets youth was some numpty who couldn't even pass off his left hand. Welsh rugby needs completely gutting out.
I take what you say at face value on truth and its very insightful. Fully aware of the clear favouritism in the England set up... Right prep school.. Daddys a upper middle class man with connections etc... But id hoped it wasnt rife in Wales... But you suggest its as bad in a similar or different way... Really dissapointed to hear it fella
This comment is (unfortunately) so true of Welsh rugby, and has been for decades now. A coach or parent knows someone in the regional set up, and will put forward their players who will then get in over the more talented players who don't have the connections. I know it's often the same in business (Not what, but who you know), but unfortunately if you want to start looking for faults somewhere, start at the age grades. It almost seems as if regions are too full of pride to let go of players they've invested time and money into. There are so many good players who have been told 'no', only to be subjected to watching a player who was no where near their level make it into their regional academy. Hopefully this new 'players of interest' works and is not just a re-branding of regional academies.
@@bowlingarry I know I'm just some guy on the internet but I promise what I say isn't just my truth, but the truth of so many boys I played with in the academy setup. Kieran Hardy was rubbish at junior level. We used to call him "wrong way Kieran" because he was never able to identify an overlap and loved going down the blind side for absolutely no reason, regardless of how many lads would shout at him to go wide. His father was the scout for the scarlets and only ever selected Kieran and this numpty from Crymych who was objectively terrible. I could name at least 5 other Scrum halves my age alone who were 10x the player Kieran ever was. Sadly it's not just favouritism either, maybe 70% of it is, the rest is an inability to identify talent. Adam Beard is a big example of this. My team played Birchgrove (the junior team Adam played for) many times and Adam would stink the game out. He was just massive at an early age. I knew Richard Hardy believed he'd make the Lions squad one day...... Boys who hit the gym at 13 and got stronger than most we're always the ones to get picked eventhough you could see they had no rugby brain and a poor mentality. The culture is also broken in the sense the boys think that once they get that u18s Wales cap, they think they're the dog's bo**ocks. I stopped caring about Welsh Rugby a few years ago because I know how broken and corrupt it is.
So much truth in this statement. 1 of welsh rugby's development scouts told me foxy would never reach the level of matty basterau, north could never play centre and mike Phillips was the best 9 to ever play the game. Irony is he was always kissing ar53 down at the arms park getting cosy with peeps. They happily gave him a job n grassroots rugby has been declining ever since
to be fair, I now ,live in England and can say my son is un fortunately in the same boats as you, its funny how all the coaches sons are in the teams academy, and the coaches are just dads, who clearly don't understand more than passing drills and they decide who to put forward - I had taught my lad that if there's a solid defensive line to step in draw defenders and make space for a team mate.....he was dropped because he wasn't just running straight into the contact.... just barking mad. There is also a huge issue with public school boys here too total favouritism even the breaks are based on their school terms Apart from venting the reason I highlight this is it happens in England as well and I believe its happened in Wales for years -I don't think it portends doom and gloom because its always happened - you are right it shouldn't but it does - think back , how many of the welsh players are from that M4 corridor , from schools around cardiff. How many from Pembrokeshire - in recent times the sherrif (carmarthen) and shanks (tenby) I can promise you we have a fuck ton more talent waiting to play. How many north welshman - Northy any others? Are we really saying only people around Cardiff know how to play rugby? Looing at the current team there is a lot of young talent in there but we are missing key positions - we don't have any world class props and I can't see any coming through thats maybe what scares me most. We are also looking for a new 10 and you are right its not costelow, he had promise initially but has hit his ceiling and its not enough. When we have experience 10s in Sam Davies, Jarrod Evans and Sheedy - as well as potential exciting 10 in Dan Edwards I have no idea why we are ignoring them. ref 9 position I actually don't mind hardy (sorry i know its a sore point) but you are right we could do with a lot better and if we are ignoring better talent there its scandalous as these are our KEY positions , look wht great 9s bring - du pont, Faf etc. to summarise I think we have always suffered from favouritism and nepotism , so , whilst it neds stamping out to maximise our talent, its not the only reason we are totally shit, I don't think we are developing the KEY positions of Props etc
It’s sad seeing Wales go this far backwards, the whole rivalry with England and Wales is over lol England will smash Wales for the next few years minimum
Wales won't be able to turn it around as Australia has done, as the problems are far deeper rooted. Australia always had the quality players, they just needed to be selected and properly coached. Wales just don't have the players, sadly. Speaking as a Wales supporter, I just don't know where they go from here and fear this current fallow period will be worse than the 1990s.
If the Boks make rotations in their team to blood young players they get the “disrespected the competition” bs. But you lot end up keeping same players and then they retire and the new guys don’t have any experience 😂. SA vs Wales Bloemfontein 2022 was vital.
Out of curiosity, I was looking at the Wales squad that won the 2021 six nations (so three and a half years ago). Not a single member of that squad, has played in any of Wales recent Autumn matches. None. Now I know some have retired since then (fair enough) and I also know that some are currently injured, but can someone explain what is going on with the players who are not injured and not retired, yet were not selected?
It's very difficult for me to state that welsh rugby needs a complete reset and it's going to take a generation to rebuild. Foxy is right when he says that the WRU needed urgency and agency regarding the youth and community game many years ago. This is the outcome of the seeming lack of foresight and the overwhelming burden of managing the ailing welsh regions. Nobody likes to see Wales failing at the national level. I don't think any individual is to blame, the WRU collectively needs to take responsibility.
Wales academy system is not working, too many journeyman and not enough players coming through. Not enough happening at grass roots level. 2 regions needed to happen 5 + years ago. Media coverage of football and bad results for rugby meaning youngsters aren’t even giving rugby a peak. Welsh players from English academy’s is mostly what’s been happening. It goes on and on and on, soo frustrating that now this going to be 5/10 years to get any consistency and that’s if a decision to change is made soon. I’m obviously Welsh, patriotic and gutted at the state of Welsh rugby. 😢
Looks to me like Gatland has been sold a fast one based on the number of player retirements - I don’t recognise any of the Welsh players… this is Wales problem - a completely inexperienced team. The Welsh public need to come to terms with this for a couple of seasons because there is no miracle cure (apart from Scott Robertson).
I find it crazy that we would want less regions not more, surely the bigger the pool of players to choose from the better?? Wales have never had strength in depth they plan for the now not the future, and the empty seats are down to the ridiculous prices for tickets, would cost a family of 4 £210 for a match worth watching, pure greed on that front
Torally disagree with davies about going down to 3 regions we need atleast 4 the problem is there is no money in the game and welsh kids dont play rugby anymore .youth rugby has diaappeared thats a fact.ih and so have half the senior teams in wales and none have a seconds team.our player pool is tiny
Are you just going to spam the comments section with your sad little anti-English nonsense? Try and make a meaninful comment else go for a walk or something.
The problem with you guys in the Northern Hemisphere is that you actually tell yourselves and end up believing that you're better than you are. Stop patting yourselves on the back for small, meaningless achievements which you end up trying to magnify in a vain attempt to make them look like big achievements. Face facts - you can win all the 6 Nations championships you want to - but until you actually win a World Cup title - even if just ONE, as England managed to do 21 years ago, how do you expect other countries- especially those who HAVE been World Champions on more than one occasion - how could you expect them to respect you guys when you have such low expectations of your teams. C'mon man, get some pride!!!
I think there’s respect for the All Blacks and Wallabies alright, but their will always be an asterix beside South Africa, particularly with the use of anabolic steroids in the schools over there, and if those players get through to become pros without being caught, that is effectively cheating the sport, especially when the World Cup wins have been on the back of physicality
And the point of your comment is what? You want us all to get on our knees and blow you all off for being so magnificent? SA have a freak, once if a lifetime team. NZ have been very up & down and Australia have only just come back from the dead. Get off your high horse you insufferable bell end.
I grew up in and around the youth setup for scarlets. I didn't make it pro and I've no complaints about it. The youth setup in Wales is totally broken. The "Regional Development Officers" are completely corrupt. The word "Favouritism" is an understatement. I'm seeing so many of the welsh players who were boys I either played with or played against and were nowhere near the best of my generation. Adam Beard, Ryan Elias, KIERAN HARDY, Dylan Phillips, Sam Castello... I could go on. The scouting is completely broken and I saw boys who had genuine talent be completely ignored in favour for players who had some form of backhand connection with the scouts. I know this sounds like a conspiracy, but I lived and breathed it. I foresaw the collapse of welsh rugby 10 years ago, when we were winning grand slams and doing well in world cups. I told all my english university mates that wales would be a shambles soon because I knew the players who were going through the academy system just weren't all that. Sorry to say, but welsh Rugby is dead and won't come back anytime soon. I'll even name drop RICHARD HARDY in here. A completely corrupt narcissist who picked his son Kieran over much better scrum halves and those better scrum halves didn't get a look in. The second string scrum half for the scarlets youth was some numpty who couldn't even pass off his left hand. Welsh rugby needs completely gutting out.
I take what you say at face value on truth and its very insightful.
Fully aware of the clear favouritism in the England set up... Right prep school.. Daddys a upper middle class man with connections etc... But id hoped it wasnt rife in Wales... But you suggest its as bad in a similar or different way... Really dissapointed to hear it fella
This comment is (unfortunately) so true of Welsh rugby, and has been for decades now. A coach or parent knows someone in the regional set up, and will put forward their players who will then get in over the more talented players who don't have the connections. I know it's often the same in business (Not what, but who you know), but unfortunately if you want to start looking for faults somewhere, start at the age grades. It almost seems as if regions are too full of pride to let go of players they've invested time and money into. There are so many good players who have been told 'no', only to be subjected to watching a player who was no where near their level make it into their regional academy. Hopefully this new 'players of interest' works and is not just a re-branding of regional academies.
@@bowlingarry I know I'm just some guy on the internet but I promise what I say isn't just my truth, but the truth of so many boys I played with in the academy setup. Kieran Hardy was rubbish at junior level. We used to call him "wrong way Kieran" because he was never able to identify an overlap and loved going down the blind side for absolutely no reason, regardless of how many lads would shout at him to go wide. His father was the scout for the scarlets and only ever selected Kieran and this numpty from Crymych who was objectively terrible. I could name at least 5 other Scrum halves my age alone who were 10x the player Kieran ever was. Sadly it's not just favouritism either, maybe 70% of it is, the rest is an inability to identify talent. Adam Beard is a big example of this. My team played Birchgrove (the junior team Adam played for) many times and Adam would stink the game out. He was just massive at an early age. I knew Richard Hardy believed he'd make the Lions squad one day...... Boys who hit the gym at 13 and got stronger than most we're always the ones to get picked eventhough you could see they had no rugby brain and a poor mentality. The culture is also broken in the sense the boys think that once they get that u18s Wales cap, they think they're the dog's bo**ocks. I stopped caring about Welsh Rugby a few years ago because I know how broken and corrupt it is.
So much truth in this statement.
1 of welsh rugby's development scouts told me foxy would never reach the level of matty basterau, north could never play centre and mike Phillips was the best 9 to ever play the game.
Irony is he was always kissing ar53 down at the arms park getting cosy with peeps. They happily gave him a job n grassroots rugby has been declining ever since
to be fair, I now ,live in England and can say my son is un fortunately in the same boats as you, its funny how all the coaches sons are in the teams academy, and the coaches are just dads, who clearly don't understand more than passing drills and they decide who to put forward - I had taught my lad that if there's a solid defensive line to step in draw defenders and make space for a team mate.....he was dropped because he wasn't just running straight into the contact.... just barking mad. There is also a huge issue with public school boys here too total favouritism even the breaks are based on their school terms
Apart from venting the reason I highlight this is it happens in England as well and I believe its happened in Wales for years -I don't think it portends doom and gloom because its always happened - you are right it shouldn't but it does - think back , how many of the welsh players are from that M4 corridor , from schools around cardiff. How many from Pembrokeshire - in recent times the sherrif (carmarthen) and shanks (tenby) I can promise you we have a fuck ton more talent waiting to play. How many north welshman - Northy any others? Are we really saying only people around Cardiff know how to play rugby?
Looing at the current team there is a lot of young talent in there but we are missing key positions - we don't have any world class props and I can't see any coming through thats maybe what scares me most. We are also looking for a new 10 and you are right its not costelow, he had promise initially but has hit his ceiling and its not enough. When we have experience 10s in Sam Davies, Jarrod Evans and Sheedy - as well as potential exciting 10 in Dan Edwards I have no idea why we are ignoring them. ref 9 position I actually don't mind hardy (sorry i know its a sore point) but you are right we could do with a lot better and if we are ignoring better talent there its scandalous as these are our KEY positions , look wht great 9s bring - du pont, Faf etc.
to summarise I think we have always suffered from favouritism and nepotism , so , whilst it neds stamping out to maximise our talent, its not the only reason we are totally shit, I don't think we are developing the KEY positions of Props etc
Anybody would think england are pulling up trees ffs, they're lucky they are playing Japan this weekend and not Argentina 😂😂😂.
England just lost to all blacks and sa, clearly good things going for them just losing close games, wales are tier 2 nation right now
I wish they were playing Argentina this weekend!! England will be up for it just a shame it’s Japan & not Argentina.
It’s sad seeing Wales go this far backwards, the whole rivalry with England and Wales is over lol England will smash Wales for the next few years minimum
Wow how one eyes are you buddy. No one but no one mentioned England. One of wales best former players spoke about Wales. What were you watching?
@@owenfarmer4197What are you talking about?… the comment I replied to was a comment about England!!
Wales won't be able to turn it around as Australia has done, as the problems are far deeper rooted. Australia always had the quality players, they just needed to be selected and properly coached. Wales just don't have the players, sadly. Speaking as a Wales supporter, I just don't know where they go from here and fear this current fallow period will be worse than the 1990s.
If the Boks make rotations in their team to blood young players they get the “disrespected the competition” bs. But you lot end up keeping same players and then they retire and the new guys don’t have any experience 😂. SA vs Wales Bloemfontein 2022 was vital.
Out of curiosity, I was looking at the Wales squad that won the 2021 six nations (so three and a half years ago). Not a single member of that squad, has played in any of Wales recent Autumn matches. None. Now I know some have retired since then (fair enough) and I also know that some are currently injured, but can someone explain what is going on with the players who are not injured and not retired, yet were not selected?
It's very difficult for me to state that welsh rugby needs a complete reset and it's going to take a generation to rebuild. Foxy is right when he says that the WRU needed urgency and agency regarding the youth and community game many years ago. This is the outcome of the seeming lack of foresight and the overwhelming burden of managing the ailing welsh regions. Nobody likes to see Wales failing at the national level. I don't think any individual is to blame, the WRU collectively needs to take responsibility.
Wales academy system is not working, too many journeyman and not enough players coming through. Not enough happening at grass roots level. 2 regions needed to happen 5 + years ago. Media coverage of football and bad results for rugby meaning youngsters aren’t even giving rugby a peak. Welsh players from English academy’s is mostly what’s been happening. It goes on and on and on, soo frustrating that now this going to be 5/10 years to get any consistency and that’s if a decision to change is made soon. I’m obviously Welsh, patriotic and gutted at the state of Welsh rugby. 😢
I miss so much both centers, David and North, as well as the dreadlocks flanker...Navidi.
How many people go to URC games in Wales? 4-5 thousand? That money pays for the national team and brings on youngsters.
Looks to me like Gatland has been sold a fast one based on the number of player retirements - I don’t recognise any of the Welsh players… this is Wales problem - a completely inexperienced team.
The Welsh public need to come to terms with this for a couple of seasons because there is no miracle cure (apart from Scott Robertson).
I find it crazy that we would want less regions not more, surely the bigger the pool of players to choose from the better?? Wales have never had strength in depth they plan for the now not the future, and the empty seats are down to the ridiculous prices for tickets, would cost a family of 4 £210 for a match worth watching, pure greed on that front
Torally disagree with davies about going down to 3 regions we need atleast 4 the problem is there is no money in the game and welsh kids dont play rugby anymore .youth rugby has diaappeared thats a fact.ih and so have half the senior teams in wales and none have a seconds team.our player pool is tiny
Wales are once again a joke in the rugby world!
Gatland has to go but unfortunately whoever gets this load of crap are on a no win!!!!
England 10 france 53
They haven’t played yet? How do you know the score? Do you do the lottery?
Are you just going to spam the comments section with your sad little anti-English nonsense? Try and make a meaninful comment else go for a walk or something.
Wake up two years ago Twickenham
The problem with you guys in the Northern Hemisphere is that you actually tell yourselves and end up believing that you're better than you are. Stop patting yourselves on the back for small, meaningless achievements which you end up trying to magnify in a vain attempt to make them look like big achievements.
Face facts - you can win all the 6 Nations championships you want to - but until you actually win a World Cup title - even if just ONE, as England managed to do 21 years ago, how do you expect other countries- especially those who HAVE been World Champions on more than one occasion - how could you expect them to respect you guys when you have such low expectations of your teams.
C'mon man, get some pride!!!
Hoya Southern Hemisphere teams🎉🎉🎉
I think there’s respect for the All Blacks and Wallabies alright, but their will always be an asterix beside South Africa, particularly with the use of anabolic steroids in the schools over there, and if those players get through to become pros without being caught, that is effectively cheating the sport, especially when the World Cup wins have been on the back of physicality
@eoinh3816 what utter BS
@@eoinh3816what a knob
And the point of your comment is what? You want us all to get on our knees and blow you all off for being so magnificent?
SA have a freak, once if a lifetime team. NZ have been very up & down and Australia have only just come back from the dead. Get off your high horse you insufferable bell end.